Romney throws back 'outsourcing' charge at Obama

GRAND JUNCTION, CO -- Three weeks ago, the Obama campaign began seizing on a Washington Post report that Mitt Romney's Bain Capital invested in companies that outsourced jobs to China and India. Most recently, it is airing this TV ad in battleground states.

But after disputing the article -- even demanding a retraction (which the Post didn't grant) -- Romney and his campaign have employed a counterattack: They're now saying that President Obama is an outsourcer, too.

Campaigning in Colorado today, Romney said of Obama: "He likes to talk about outsourcing. He's run some interesting attack ads on me on that topic. You may have seen that and interestingly an independent unbiased fact checking organization looked at his ads and looked at that attack and said it's false and misleading," he said, citing FactCheck.org.

"But it is interesting that when it comes to outsourcing that this president has been outsourcing a good deal of American jobs himself, By putting money into energy companies -- solar and wind energy companies that end up making their products outside the United States. If there's an 'Outsourcer-in-Chief,' it's the president of the United States."

Romney was referring to loan guarantees and grants made in the 2009 stimulus.

The Obama campaign quickly fired back, charging that Romney's actual plans endorse outsourcing while President Obama wants to discourage the practice. It also noted that Romney personally profited from the Bain investments, while Obama didn't with the 2009 stimulus.

"Mitt Romney’s plans encourage outsourcing. Barack Obama wants to end incentives to send jobs overseas," the Obama campaign said in a statement." President Obama has fought to end tax breaks for companies that ship jobs overseas, fostered incentives for companies to bring jobs back to America and doubled the rate of trade cases we've brought against China to ensure an even playing field for American workers."

The campaign continued, "Mitt Romney, who’s personally profited from investments in companies that were pioneers in shipping American jobs to India and China as a corporate buyout specialist, would slash funds to spur the clean energy sector in America, eliminating renewable energy jobs in states like Colorado and Iowa and ceding the industry to China. The American people deserve a President who will fight to create jobs here in America, not the 'Outsourcer-in-Chief' Mitt Romney promises to be.”